Utopia, Performativity, and the Unhomely

In this paper I discuss how a differently conceived performative and architectural understanding of Utopia can help us to rework and extend notions of utopianism that have received renewed attention in recent times. In developing this point, I argue that, although notions of dwelling and comfort are key to Utopia and architecture, the ‘unhomely’ and ‘unsettling’, which also appear in aspects of thought on performativity, are a crucial and as-yet greatly underscrutinised part of thinking about Utopia. I attempt to question what we consider ‘good’ or desirable, and hence to enlarge the frame of what we consider ‘utopian’. Through this, I consider the potential beginnings of an extended uncanny Utopian ethics.